God-mode cheat code

[Ironwood]

I just wish there was a code that would relinquish the entire game to human control. This would make scenario creation possible. As it is, all that's possible is to edit the rules, and make maps (and even that's not really all that doable, since there's no zoom or minimap in the editor). In short, you can make modpacks, not scenarios.

I don't even care about events. They're nice (and were fun in such scenarios as "Atlantis" and "Midgard"), but I don't need them for my purposes.

[randommushroom]

I saw the thread at Civ Fanatics. It's being hypothesized that the person's program for when he downloaded the file renamed the file with the string "multi" inside. That happened because of the header encoding which will say something like "This is a multipart message encoded in...blah blah blah."

I'd guess that this was an intentional piece of Firaxian code to give the developers a way to look inside games being playtested. When the program loads a saved game, it scans for the string "multi" and if it finds it, enables certain features. Now because of that choice of string, and a strange glitch in the saving of a file over the internet, a serendipitous discovery ensued.

Could there possibly be more? Sure.

I think the most interesting aspect to this is that one could really study and get a better glimpse into the AI.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by randommushroom
When the program loads a saved game, it scans for the string "multi" and if it finds it, enables certain features. Now because of that choice of string, and a strange glitch in the saving of a file over the internet, a serendipitous discovery ensued.

Perhaps the string "multi" means multiplayer? Perhaps they are using this to test if this game could really work with multiplayer support?

[Dry]

Originally posted by Solver
... there are cheats, it's just that they are disabled, ...

Do you mean... the scenario editor was ... disabled?

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Dry
Do you mean... the scenario editor was ... disabled?

You could say that, but it is not 100% true. The cheats that are in the debug version sounds to be very lowlevel cheats, and saves can not be used as scenarios.

[Gramphos]

Anyone without the patch that has tried this?

[hooha47]

It works without the patch.

[takamine]

I think the most interesting aspect to this is that one could really study and get a better glimpse into the AI.

I agree that this idea is the most valuable facet of the cheat -- one can now learn the entire set of responses of the AI to various events throughout the game. To see its response when someone declares war on it -- this will show us all what it bases its priorities on, and will let us develop strategies that can specifically stop its response.

I also think that it would be fascinating to simply watch the building choices/responses of the AI on the various difficulty levels, to see what the programmers thought of as the ideal actions by the AI for each difficulty level.

[Mizaq]

It's a trick: get an axe.

[Purple]

No more "tournament" games?

Doesn't this mean that the so-called tournament games are dead?

[Gramphos]

Re: No more "tournament" games?

Originally posted by Purple
Doesn't this mean that the so-called tournament games are dead?

No, just add that to the rules. No use of saves that contains "multi", and they have rushed the patch to fix this

[Purple]

That's fine for honorable players, but such a rule (or even a patch) wouldn't deter the unscrupulous.

[Sabre2th]

We'll have to rely on the honesty of the players. If a player is caught cheating, they shouldn't be allowed to participate again.

[Purple]

In an ideal world, you could trust everyone to behave properly, but inevitably someone spoils it for the rest. How do you detect the cheater?

I don't have a stake here, since I only play against myself, but in principle I've thought that tournament games are a Good Thing until now.

[Sabre2th]

How do you detect the cheater?

That would be the question of the day. Unless a player's actions make it obvious, we probably can't.